Posted on 04/09/2002 12:28:46 PM PDT by Bryan
If you don't like baseball, stop reading now and move to another thread because it will drive you crazy. On the other hand, you might be living with someone who might be interested, so please bring this to his attention.
It's that time of year again, and the major leagues are already well under way. I've been part of a fantasy baseball league (off and on) here in central Illinois for over 20 years. Now it can all be done by e-mail. Due to an unusually large number of retiring managers this year, we will need at least 7 new managers.
You start with 33 players and you must keep at least 12 of them. You may choose to keep more than 12 but it will cost you picks. A 13th player will cost your 2nd round pick, a 14th player will cost your 3rd round pick, etc. Teams will draft in an order based on their finish last year. The World Series champ will draft last and the team with the worst record drafts first.
This is a DH league with a 25-man major league roster and this year, we will expand the minors to 10 players (total 35). We draft from all MLB players. The draft will be by e-mail and it will start Friday evening, April 19. This league is extremely competitive. Don't be afraid to take a team that looks mediocre; this draft system is a great equalizer, and a mediocre team will generally get some great draft picks.
For example, in 1980 I took over a crummy platooned team from a manager who quit in the middle of the season. I made a few trades, did very well in the next draft, and won the World Series after only 1-1/2 seasons of managing.
We use the Strat-O-Matic rules system. Your team's performance this year will be based on the performance of the real players in the Major Leagues last year. This is an extremely detailed and accurate simulation. Your pitchers will actually get tired, and it affects their performance. Fielding ability, throwing ability (for catchers and outfielders), and different levels of effectiveness against lefties and righties (for both batters and pitchers) are covered in the rules. The best part of all is that nowadays, the computer takes care of all these pesky details.
The different ballparks also have an effect. For example, it's easier to hit a home run in Colorado than in St. Louis. For the sake of simplicity, no one will be allowed to change ballparks this year.
Only serious applicants who are familiar with Major League Baseball please. If interested, e-mail me at bryan4caustic@yahoo.com and I'll send the rosters of the available teams very early on Sunday morning. First come, first served: after receiving the rosters, send me the names of your first, second, third and fourth preferences.
My experience with Fantasy Baseball was you drafted players and you scored points (so to speak) based on their performance THIS year. I don't understand how you can do such a thing with their performances based on LAST year...??
Also, your Strat-o-matic reference threw me for a loop. I thought that was a game where you used cards for each player and threw dice for each at-bat and the results tended to be proportional to the stats achieved by each individual player for the year that his card was set up from.
If it appears like I'm too dense to figure this out, feel free to ignore this post.
From staring at that long white line for so long.
Most god awful boring sport on the planet to watch from beginning to end. Especially on TV.
We set up the rosters and rotations one month at a time. The computer generates a schedule. It's all very efficient.
One of them has Rafael Furcal, Ken Griffey Jr., Mark McGwire, Eric Chavez, Todd Hundley, Quilvio Veras, Alex Ochoa, Larry Walker, Rafael Palmeiro, Lance Berkman, Matt Morris and Rich Aurilia. This team just barely missed the playoffs last year and it has a lot of potential. With a better manager calling the shots and some good draft picks, it could go all the way. Are you interested?
From staring at that long white line for so long.
Most god awful boring sport on the planet to watch from beginning to end. Especially on TV.
Now that one I hadn't heard in a while. I agree that baseball is certainly ten minutes of action packed into three hours. But even when we played it with cards and dice, Strat-O-Matic got it down to about 30 minutes. Each plate appearance was one card flip and one roll of the dice. Each attempt to steal a base, or round third base and head for home from second on a long single, was one roll of the dice.
Nowadays, the computer takes care of that. You won't even see it. You set up your lineups, rotation etc. for a whole month of games, and a week or two later, I e-mail you the results from that whole month.
The only reason I ever go to games (which is about once a season and those are only minor league games) is for the hotdogs and beer.
MKM
I suspect there will be more cheating going on than in the Chicago Mayoral election.
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